1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a stacking apparatus, a transportation apparatus and a recording apparatus.
2. Related Art
As a type of existing recording apparatus, there is an ink jet printer (hereinafter, referred to as “printer”). The printer performs printing as follows. An uppermost sheet is taken from a sheet feeding cassette (hereinafter, simply referred to as “cassette”) on which a plurality of recording media (for example, a printing sheet, hereinafter, simply referred to as “sheet”) are stacked so as to feed the sheet one by one to a recording portion (printing portion).
In such a printer, a mounting portion for mounting a cassette, and a sheet feeding roller for feeding a sheet are provided. After the cassette on which a plurality of sheets are stacked is mounted on the mounting portion, a sheet feeding operation is performed by rotating the sheet feeding roller. In the sheet feeding operation, an uppermost sheet arranged on the cassette is taken so as to be fed to a printing portion.
A face against which side edges of sheets accommodated in the cassette in a mounting direction thereof are abutted (abutment face) when the cassette is mounted on the mounting portion is set to be a slope in order to guide the plurality of sheets accommodated in the cassette to the recording portion while separating the plurality of sheets one by one. However, if the cassette is mounted roughly, sheets run up the slope (abutment face) in some case. Then, the plurality of sheets cannot be separated one by one. Therefore, double feeding of sheets may be caused. If the double feeding of sheets is caused, failures such as a paper jam may be caused.
On the other hand, a method of mounting the cassette gently such that the sheets do not run up the slope may be considered. However, in this case, a user has to be sensitive to the mounting beyond the necessary level and the method becomes not so preferable. Further, even when the cassette is gently mounted, the sheets can run up the slope in many cases.
Techniques for solving the above problem have been studied. For example, in Japanese Patent No. 3538569, a shutter member which is moved down from a retreated position at an upper side is provided in order to regulate side edges of sheets at a sheet feeding side. Further, when the shutter member is moved up to the retreated position at the upper side, a lower end portion of the shutter member is rotationally moved toward an upstream side in a sheet feeding direction. Therefore, the side edges of the sheets abutted against the shutter member can be sequentially aligned in a tilted state in which a side edge of the uppermost sheet is at the most advanced position in the sheet feeding direction.
However, in Japanese Patent No. 3538569, the shutter member is rotationally moved and slid to the retreated position. Therefore, an additional space for providing a rotational mechanism and a sliding mechanism is required. In addition, spaces for accommodating the shutter member, the rotational mechanism and the sliding mechanism in the retreated position are required. Accordingly, an apparatus is increased in size.